BYD tops 300,000 monthly battery-electric sales for first time

Key takeaways

• BYD sold 305,743 battery-electric passenger vehicles, its first month above 300,000
• Battery-electric models made up 63.3% of passenger sales as plug-in hybrids fell 17.2%
• Overseas shipments more than doubled to 170,194, but Australian sales are not broken out

BYD sold 305,743 fully electric passenger vehicles worldwide in October, the first time it has topped 300,000 battery-electric sales in a month. The result is up 37.4% on a year earlier and a record for the third month in a row, according to figures BYD released on 1 November. Overseas shipments also more than doubled.

BYD October 2026 sales

BYD’s total new energy vehicle sales, a category covering battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models, rose 11% to 490,168. That is BYD’s best month of 2026 and its sixth straight month of year-on-year growth. Battery-electric vehicles made up 63.3% of passenger sales, up from 59.8% in September and 51.0% a year earlier.

• Battery-electric passenger vehicles: 305,743, up 37.4%
• Plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles: 177,382, down 17.2%
• Total new energy vehicles: 490,168, up 11%
• Overseas shipments: 170,194, up 102.8%
• China sales: 319,974, down 10.6%

Exports are carrying BYD’s growth. It has shipped 1,513,154 vehicles overseas in the first 10 months of 2026, up 93.75%, while China sales fell 27.8% over the same period to about 2.11 million. October overseas shipments were 5.8% lower than September’s 180,700. BYD’s total sales for the first 10 months are 3,621,744, still down 2.2% on last year.

BYD sells both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models in Australia, but these are global figures and do not show how many vehicles it sold here in October. October VFACTS figures will show how many of the global sales landed in Australia.